The Travelers
by JR Blackbird
Summary: After 21 years have passed since the death of Avatar Korra, the new Avatar was never found. Believing that the era of the Avatar is over, the world began to move on without the master of the four elements. As for Wen, a young man with an unknown past, he begins his new journey at the modern Ba-Sing-Se University unaware of the future events that are going to unfold.


JR Blackbird

Presents…

The Travelers

Book One: Identities

Fire, Air, Water, and Earth

It has been 21 years since Avatar Korra has passed away,  
And after years of relentless search by the world's governments, the new Avatar was never found.  
Believing that something tragic caused the Avatar era to be over, the searches stopped.  
And the world believed that the Avatar will never return.

Chapter One  
A New Beginning

As he stares deeply into the eyes of Avatar Kyoshi's golden statue, the young man comes to a sudden conclusion. He managed to do something special in his life that even in his own thoughts, it was an impossible dream. He became the first person in his family to be accepted to the prestigious Ba Sing Se University.

With new hope in his hazel brown eyes, he says with a smile, "Well, here I am. Let's do this", looking around him, "as soon as I find my dorm."

After picking up a map, he searches among the university's academic buildings and manages to find the area where the dorms are located. Pulling out a piece of paper labeled "Residential" and checking over the name of the dorm he was sorted into, he again looks on the map for the hall labeled "Zei". Quickly finding the correct green roofed dorm, he picks up his luggage and was soon off to his new home.

Looking around, he began to feel the rich academic environment that Ba Sing Se University had to offer. Among the "move in" crowd of new freshmen, he could see some of the famous academic buildings and places that have been the icons for the school. From the Astrology Tower to two acre Mung-Yi Research Koi Pond, he was overcome by a sense of wonder and a bit of realism as he thought to himself,

"Yeah alright, you sure look beautiful now. But by the time finals come around, not even the university's tented shutters will look nice to me."

After about ten minutes of walking to the Residential Area, he finds "Zei Hall" and soon is inadvertently greeted by a dishwater blonde haired girl with a tag on her green shirt saying "Residential Life."

With a bright look on her face, she says happily, "Welcome to Ba Sing Se University! My name is Ànì, may I help you with anything?" With a confused tone, he replies "uh…yeah, can you tell me where room 210 is in Zei?"

"Room 210, Zei? Certainly. And what a coincidence too! I am your dorm advisor for the year. If you don't mind me asking, what is your name?"

"My name is Wen (Wén)… and it is a pleasure to meet you… An-e?" Ànì lets out a brief frustration while Wen replies, "Oh, I am sorry. I am just not good with names."

"Oh no, don't worry. You're fine. Trust me, many people have always had a problem pronouncing my name the right. In fact, you are the first one in a while to come close to saying it right the first time." Quickly shaking her head, "Anyway, let me take you to up to your room."

Giving Wen a hand gesture to follow her, they both go into Zei Hall and Wén is once again greeted by the university's pale stone, tile, and green wood architecture. After stopping for a moment to look at the elegance of the common area, his attention shifts back to Ànì as Wen sees her with her hand on her face expressing, "freshmen… Well, come on!"

After going up the spiral stone staircase, they both arrive on the second floor of the Hall and proceed down the green and gold designed carpet hallway to a room labeled "210." Along the way they both pass students and families helping to move in their collegiate into their rooms. Brief conversations can be heard while a lot of things in the hall (like furniture and boxes) are seen being moved in and out. As they both approach room 210, two older adults emerge from the space with the lady, dressed in a blue tailored hanfu, of the pair turning around to say into the room,

"Now don't forget to call me each day and remember that your bending is only meant for protection!" With a deep depressed voice, an unknown man from within the room replies, "Sure thing, mother. Thank you very much."

Quickly turning around and noticing Ànì and Wen, the lady with a perplexed expression, "Ah, and who are you two?" Ànì instantly replies, "My name is Ànì, the dorm advisor for this floor and this is Wean… er… I mean, Wen. I believe that is room 210 that…Wen… here will be staying in for the year." "I see," replied the tall dark toned man, also dressed in a red tailored hanfu. Assuming that is the father of the unknown person inside the room, Wen adds, "Yeah, pleasure to meet Mr. and Mrs…?"

"Chuí," the lady sharply replies. "And my son in there is Shnéglí… We are very proud of him! Love you my darling!" Looking at both Ànì and Wen, "Now promise me that my boy will not get into trouble or even worse, hurt by some street armadillo-rat! Because do you know what the crime rate is like around…." Mr. Chuí interrupts, "ok honey, they get it. Just please take care of our young man." "No problem," Ànì responds.

As Mr. and Mrs. Chuí walk away, Mrs. Chuí continues to ramble on while Mr. Chuí reassures her that their son was going to be fine. Leaning over to Ànì, Wen whispers, "balloon parents." "What?" Shnéglí replies as he stands in front of the door. Wen answers, "Um… Your parents, they see a bit." "High class? Don't worry, it kind of makes me sick too" Shnéglí retorts. "Anyway, you are my roommate…right?" Wén says "Well, if this room is 210, then yes."

Wen and Shnéglí welcome each other with a firm handshake while Ànì leaves saying, "and if you guys need for anything important, I will be room 220 at the end of the hall."

As she walks away, they both quietly and quickly comments about her good conformation while entering into the small room. As Wen takes a look around, he sees that half of room is already divided and covered by Shnéglí's stuff. All that was left was a single wide-wooden desk, a metal bed frame with a white mattress on it, and half of the space in the wooden closet-cabinets that took up the entire side of one wall. A single white square-pane window on the far side of the room, with the shades down, emitted a dim light into the room while Shnéglí helped Wen bring in his stuff.

As Shnéglí turns on the ceiling light, followed by flopping on his bed, Wen stops for a moment, while putting his luggage in the middle of the room, and his eyes pan around the room, When Shnéglí notices his "slightly-lost" facial expression, he asks,

"Is there something wrong? I mean, why do look like you're out of place?" Wen, sounding like he snapped back into reality, responds, "Oh... um, sorry. I was just thinking."

With a saddened tone, Shnéglí asks "My parents, right?" Wen, trying to lie, replies, "No, not really." It is soon followed up by, "Well, kinda." Then after a momentary pause, "Yes."

Shnéglí, expressing a tone that could only be defined as "remorse", explains to Wen, "Well call them what you want too. I mean, they have always been very protective about anything that I have tried to do. And while I know they do it out of love, their actions have always left me feeling very sheltered," with a little bit of a perk in his voice, "and yet, I feel ok with it. Just living in my own little world. Away from all the harshness of life. I mean, sure I will miss out on some events but I at least I know that I could…"

Wen interrupts, "Whoa, whoa, whoa… hang on their buddy. I am very sorry to be rude here, but I just meet you today, man. I mean sure it sounds interesting, but there is no need to tell your life story right now." Reassuring Shnéglí, "Maybe another time because after-all, we are still some-what strangers to each other, right?" Shnéglí answers, "well…yes. But at least you sound nice." Wen replies, "Thank you… same to you." A moment of silence goes by, Wen speaks out "Well, I think I am going to un-pack now."

Wen turns around and picks up his heavy luggage and places it on top of the unoccupied bed. As he opens his luggage, a cracking sound could be heard. It is instantly followed by the bed toppling toward Wen, spilling his luggage out onto the clear tile floor in the process. Afterwards, Wen scrambles to pick up his clothing while Shnéglí notices a dark red and gold robe among Wen's spilled clothing. Getting out of the bed to go pick it up, Wen quickly scopes up the robe, places it within a ball of clothing, and throws the entire pile into his closet.

Shnéglí immediately asks, "What was that piece of clothing with the red and golden outline?" Wen replies, "Nothing, just my evening robes. That is all."

Looking over at the toppled bed, Wen looks underneath the bed frame to find built up rust that cracked after Wen put his heavy luggage on top of the bed. Scratching his head, Wen looks over at Shnéglí and says, "Well, I going to go find Ànì and get her help on this issue." Shnéglí replies, "Sure thing! I will just help clear out some of your stuff to help her get a better look at it."

As Wen leaves, Shnéglí quickly gets out of his bed and searches the closet for Wen's robe. Grabbing it, he notices the familiar patterns on the robe. Curious as to why they look familiar, Shnéglí gets out his laptop and searches on " " (Ku-gul) using key words that describe the gold patterns. In shock and disbelief, Shnéglí discovers the identity of the robe. As he began to read into the information he found, Wen reappears in the doorway with Ànì speaking, "And crack? It just fell apart?" "Yes, take a look for yourself!" Wen replies as he gestured Ànì towards the bed frame.

Shnéglí immediately closes the laptop as Ànì and Wen both look at him. Ànì asks, "And you were a witness to this, right?" "Yes," Shnéglí replies.

Bending down to inspect the bed, only to find the same rust Wen found before, Ànì addresses to Wen that she will need to file a residential report, along with a "work order" to replace the bed, and that he will not be charged for this incident. The only downside was that the replacement bed will not be installed until around night-time due to the overwhelming amount of work orders, she assumed, already in place. In the meanwhile, she suggested, as a method to kill time, that both of them should go to the "Freshman Celebration" party at the University's ballroom.

"Everyone will be there," Ànì said as she adds, "and there will be free food and drinks, loud music, and an appearance by our own mascot!" Looking at Shnéglí, Wen says, "That sounds like fun! We should go to it." "I don't know, buddy," Shnéglí responds.

Ànì says her goodbye and walks away while Wen and Shnéglí discuss about going to the party. Eventually, Wen convinces Shnéglí to attend the party if Wen helps Shnéglí on some story writing he does in his off-time. "It is about an adventurer who travels through different gaming and cartoon dimensions," Shnéglí says as he describes the story. "His name is Ajax Nobody?" Wen replies with a confused look on his face. "Yeah," Shnéglí says back to him.

A few hours pass by and duo leave their room and walk to the party. Shnéglí, nervous about social interactions, tells Wen about his shyness and that his is having second thoughts about attending the event. Wen reassures Shnéglí while telling him that everything will be fine and that he is just overthinking about the possibilities of something embarrassing happening to him. "In fact, I bet something fun and exciting might happen tonight. You know, ladies," Wen says with emphasis on the word "ladies" while nudging Shnéglí's arm.

"Well I don't know about you, but I think I will be the winner on that subject tonight," Shnéglí replies.

**Thank you to anyone who has read this opening! I will put Chapter Two up in awhile, but comments and reviews are welcome. Thanks!**


End file.
